A basketball tournament, with no fans. A St. Patrick’s Day, with no parades. College campuses, with no students. Corporate headquarters, with barren cubicles. California’s governor urged people to avoid even small social gatherings, if they can’t remain six feet apart. The nation snapped to attention as the new coronavirus was declared a pandemic and stocks slid into bear market territory. As Americans belatedly seemed to come to grips with the outbreak, President Donald Trump held a rare prime-time address from the Oval Office to calm the public.

It was a routine game of schoolyard tag — except the children had dubbed this version “coronavirus.” The kids ran around and tagged one another, but instead of being “it,” they “caught” the virus. Children like the ones a reporter saw playing recently at a school in Washington, D.C., are becoming more aware of the coronavirus — though they may not fully understand it or know how seriously to take it — as it begins to affect their daily lives with school closures and event cancellations, restrictions on travel, and the NBA nixing the rest of its season. Many parents are now deciding how to talk to their children about the virus. Some said they are checking in daily, while others worry talking about it could make their kids more anxious or fearful. “We talk about it a lot.

Iraq’s military Thursday said it opened an investigation into a rocket attack hours earlier that killed three servicemen, including two Americans, at an Iraqi base housing coalition forces. At least 12 coalition personnel were also wounded late Wednesday by a barrage of rockets targeting Camp Taji base, located 27 kilometers (17 miles) north of Baghdad, according to a U.S.-led coalition statement. A truck rigged with 107 mm Katyusha rocket launchers was discovered by Iraqi security forces a few kilometers (miles) from the base following the attack.

The yeshivah world in Israel is still waiting for clear instructions from the Education and Health Ministries regarding how to handle the new instructions of avoiding any gatherings over 100 people. Although Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu announced on Thursday night that all schools throughout Israel are closing until at least after Pesach, he said it does not include dorm schools (or special education schools and schools for youth at risk). Meanwhile, yeshivahs throughout Israel have begun preparing to comply with the Health Ministry’s instructions, including dividing the bochurim into separate batei medrash and dining rooms. STAY UPDATED WITH BREAKING UPDATES FROM YWN VIA WHATSAPP – SIGN UP NOW Just click on this link, and you will be placed into a group.

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A passenger on a JetBlue flight that arrived at Palm Beach International Airport tested positive for COVID-19 and other passengers were advised to monitor their health according to Centers for Disease Control guidelines, authorities said Thursday. Rescue crews were notified at 8:40 p.m. Wednesday of a medical incident on board the flight from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport, according to Palm Beach Fire Capt. Albert Borroto. The plane arrived at 8:53 p.m. and passengers sat on the tarmac until about 10:45 p.m. The passengers eventually deplaned in a “limited containment area,” separate from the airport’s main terminals, Borroto said in an email.

European Union leaders on Thursday lashed out at President Donald Trump’s decision to restrict travel from Europe to the United States because of the new coronavirus, calling the the pandemic a global crisis that “requires cooperation rather than unilateral action.” Trump, who had called COVID-19 a “foreign virus” and claimed that European travelers “seeded” infection clusters in the United States, said late Wednesday that all European travel would be cut off. U.S. officials later said the entry ban only would apply to most foreign citizens who have been inside Europe’s passport-free travel zone during the 14 days prior to their arrival in the United States. “The European Union disapproves of the fact that the U.S.

President Donald Trump announced Wednesday night that he will instruct the Treasury Department to allow individuals and businesses negatively affected by the coronavirus to defer their tax payments beyond the April 15 filing deadline. In an address from the Oval Office, Trump said he would use his emergency authority to allow individual taxpayers ad businesses to defer paying their taxes by next month’s deadline if they have suffered adverse effects from the spreading virus. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told Congress earlier Wednesday that the payment delay would have the effect of putting more than $200 billion back into the economy that would otherwise go to paying taxes next month. He did not indicate what the new deadline would be.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said Thursday he will announce new restrictions on gatherings to halt the spread of the new coronavirus in the coming days, but he hopes to avoid closing all public events such as Broadway shows. The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Metropolitan Opera, meanwhile, announced that they would shut down because of virus concerns. “The Met’s priority is to protect and support our staff, volunteers, and visitors,” Daniel Weiss, the museum’s president and chief executive, said in a statement. He said the museum would close its three locations starting Friday. No date for reopening was given. The opera company said all performances have been canceled through March 31. De Blasio earlier said on CNN, “I don’t want to see Broadway go dark if we can avoid it.

I landed in Israel from Spain today, but I’m feeling good. Do I need to go into isolation? Yes. The Ministry of Health orders that you must stay quarantined for 14 days, beginning from the day of departure from the country- in this case Spain. The virus incubation period is 14 days, so it is important to complete the entire isolation period and prevent the risk of exposure and infection of others. I returned from an international professional conference in the United States. Do I need to go into isolation? Yes. The Ministry of Health has determined that every Israeli who attends an international conference, will be quarantined for 14 days, from the date of leaving the professional conference.